The New Bedford Railroad was a railroad in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

. It was incorporated on July 1, 1873, as a merger between the

New Bedford and Taunton Railroad The New Bedford and Taunton Railroad was originally incorporated at the Old Colony Railroad Corporation in 1836 as an extension of the Taunton Branch Railroad between Taunton and New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States. The name was changed to " ...

, the

Taunton Branch Railroad The Taunton Branch Railroad was one of the earliest railroads to be established in Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered by the state in 1835 as a branch of the Boston and Providence Railroad (which opened in 1835) running between Man ...

, and the Middleborough and Taunton Railroad. The main line ran from a junction with the

Boston and Providence Railroad The Boston and Providence Railroad was a railroad company in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island which connected its namesake cities. It opened in two sections in 1834 and 1835 - one of the first rail lines in the United States - with a ...

in Mansfield through the towns of

Norton Norton may refer to: Places Norton, meaning 'north settlement' in Old English, is a common place name. Places named Norton include: Canada * Rural Municipality of Norton No. 69, Saskatchewan *Norton Parish, New Brunswick **Norton, New Brunswick, a ...

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

, Berkley, Lakeville, and

Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and po ...

to the deep-water whaling port of

New Bedford New Bedford (Massachusett: ) is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast region. Up through the 17th century, the area was the territory of the Wampanoag Native American pe ...

. The railroad also had several branches, including the former Middleborough and Taunton Railroad, which ran from Weir Village, Taunton into

Middleborough Middleborough (frequently written as Middleboro) is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 24,245 at the 2020 census. History The town was first settled by Europeans in 1661 as Nemasket, later changed to M ...

through Raynham, and a shortcut to Providence via the Boston and Providence Railroad which ran from Taunton to Attleborough through Norton. Less than a year after its formation, on February 2, 1874, the New Bedford Railroad entered into a fifty-year lease agreement with the

Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railroad The Agricultural Branch Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. It was incorporated by the Legislature of Massachusetts on April 26, 1847, to provide a rail connection between Framingham and Northborough through the town of Southborough and ...

. Two months after the lease was signed, on April 8, 1874, the

Legislature of Massachusetts The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, w ...

authorized the sale of the former Middleborough and Taunton Railroad to the

Old Colony Railroad The Old Colony Railroad (OC) was a major railroad system, mainly covering southeastern Massachusetts and parts of Rhode Island, which operated from 1845 to 1893. Old Colony trains ran from Boston to points such as Plymouth, Fall Ri ...

, but the rest of the tracks remained in the system. On June 1, 1876, the New Bedford Railroad was consolidated with the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railroad to form the

Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg and New Bedford Railroad The Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg and New Bedford Railroad was a railroad in Massachusetts. It was formed on June 1, 1876, when the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railroad merged with the New Bedford Railroad. The Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Ra ...

. In 1879, the

was leased for 99 years to the

, but still extended its own lease of the Framingham and Lowell Railroad to 98 years on October 1 of that same year. On September 10, 1881, the Framingham and Lowell Railroad was deeded on execution sale to the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg, and New Bedford Railroad, forming the railroad's largest network with 126.2 miles of track system-wide. On March 5, 1883, the Boston, Clinton, Fitchburg and New Bedford Railroad was outright consolidated into the Old Colony network. In 1893, the Old Colony Railroad was leased to the

New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

. By the 1960s, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, like many railroads, was struggling to stay solvent in the face of increased competition from alternate modes of transportation, and so in 1961 it petitioned to be included in the newly formed

Penn Central Transportation Company The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and th ...

. On December 31, 1968 all of its properties were purchased by Penn Central. Penn Central, however, soon went bankrupt, and on April 1, 1976 it was taken over by Conrail. On August 22, 1998, the Surface Transportation Board approved the buyout of Conrail by

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

and

Norfolk Southern The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...

, with the former assuming control of the former New Bedford Railroad, including the former Middleborough and Taunton Railroad line that had been sold in 1874. Today, the

Massachusetts Coastal Railroad The Massachusetts Coastal Railroad is a Class III railroad serving south-eastern Massachusetts. The railroad maintains track from Hyannis to Framingham, with the railroad operating its own trains on the 97 miles of lines between Hyannis and Fa ...

and CSX still runs trains over most of the former New Bedford Railroad system. The northernmost part of the line, between the junction with the former Boston and Providence Railroad in Mansfield and the Taunton city line, has been abandoned. Sections of this portion of the line have been converted to Old Colony Road, Fairfield Park, the Mansfield Municipal Airport, and the WWII Veterans Memorial Trail.

References

{{Reflist Defunct Massachusetts railroads Old Colony Railroad lines Railway companies established in 1873 Railway companies disestablished in 1876 American companies disestablished in 1876 American companies established in 1873

See also

References